In the area of adsorption technologies such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA), temperature swing adsorption (TSA), vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) and combinations thereof, there are circumstances where a mixture of different adsorbents can provide advantages over the use of adsorbents in discrete layers. For example, it can sometimes be advantageous to use a mixture of different adsorbents rather than discrete layers of the same adsorbents to reduce exothermal heating during adsorption, to reduce adsorbent inventory and/or cost, to decrease sensitivity to limitations in achieving a precise layer depth and the like.
Blending or mixing of materials may be accomplished at the time of manufacture or during loading of the adsorbent vessels. While blending at time of manufacture removes a field operation, an additional unit operation is added in production that may introduce moisture. In addition, the materials may settle or otherwise segregate during shipping. Pre-mixed materials with different properties may moreover segregate during loading into the vessel.
Mixing materials during field vessel loading can require specially designed loading equipment and trained personnel to perform the operation. Prior art techniques for mixing adsorbents in the field have included the possibility of particle segregation in the mixture right after mixing the materials. Such segregations may be induced by differences in shape, size and/or density of particles to be mixed. Segregation of particles is more likely if there is a motion of the mixture.
It would be desirable to provide methods and systems for loading mixtures of materials into a vessel which can be economical to design and manufacture and which facilitates ease of operation.